Ken Shipley

Associate Professor of Art

Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, TN 37044                                  

ShipleyK@APSU.edu

         Ken Shipley is an Associate Professor of Art at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, USA.  He has worked in ceramics for 30 years and began his career as an apprentice to both Charles Counts in Rising Fawn, GA and Bill Ashley in Chattanooga, TN.  Ken’s work covers many aspects of ceramics, from production pottery to large one of a kind vessel pieces, both wheel thrown and hand built.  He uses high fire reduction, salt/soda, wood fire, and electric kilns.  He holds a B.A. in Religious Studies and the Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

            Ken’s work has been exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally. This fall of 2008, he will have selected work exhibited in Vallauris, France as a former resident of "AIR-Vallauris and selected work will be exhibited in Statesboro, Georgia, as well as the "Austin Peay State University Biennial Faculty Art Exhibition" in Clarksville, TN. In May of 2008, Ken lead a workshop at John C. Campbell Folk School, and also in May traveled to Vallauris, Nice and the Cannes, France area in order to organize a "Study Abroad Program" for June 2009 through Austin Peay State University. January 11-14, 2008 he made two presentations, one on Picasso's ceramic work and one on his own work at "The Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities" in Honolulu, Hawaii. Recent exhibitions are: Celadon Art Gallery, London, England, summer 2007-present, "Masterworks 2007" which he both exhibited in and guest curated at the Madison Arts Center, Nashville, TN, "From France to China: An Enchanted Journey" at the Montgomery County Customs House Museum and Cultural Center, Clarksville, TN, February-June 2007. He was selected for "Lucky Pig Teapot Exhibition", February 2007, celebrating the Chinese New Year in Shanghai China and selected to participate in " The International Top 10 Teapot Masters Exhibition" in Shanghai, China opening on October 28-December 10, 2006  Then the exhibition re-opened for permanent display at Fudan University, Shanghai, China.  His work has also been shown at Aqui Ben Siam Gallery, Vallauris, France, 2006 and the 39th Mid-States Craft Exhibition, Evansville, IN, 2006.  Other recent exhibitions include the 25th Anniversary Holiday Exhibit at the Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, TN, and Firewalkers, an Exhibition of Fine Ceramic Art, Trahern Gallery, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN, which he and his wife, Melody, curated. Ken has work in the collections of the Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai, China, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Chattanooga, TN, the U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon, George Staples,  President-Emeritus Sherry Hoppe of APSU, President and Mrs. Bruce Speck of Missouri Southern State University, Arrowmont School of Art and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN, and AIR-Vallauris, Vallauris, France among others. His work can be seen in galleries in Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, and has been exhibited widely in the United States, Germany, Japan, France, China and England.

Melody Shipley

           Since 1996 when Melody completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, her journey in life has taken her from being a manager in a major retail hardware store, to living out of her truck to ultimately becoming a wife and a mother.  Throughout her journey, she has been a potter, finding her strength, peace, and inspiration from the beauty of nature, and then recreating her vision of that beauty in the forms and surfaces of the pots she makes.  Each pot is a separate landscape, a separate path, or a separate person in her journey of life. 

       Her thrown and altered functional and large, one of a kind sculptural vessels are reduction fired in a gas kiln.  She uses both stoneware and porcelain, and hand carves each piece. She applies several different layers of glaze to achieve the rich textures of her surfaces.  She hopes that each one of her pots reflects the peace and beauty that she finds in nature, and the joy she finds in her current journey as a wife and a mother.

       Melody’s work has been exhibited and sold regionally, nationally and internationally. Her most recent exhibition was “The 2007 World Exhibition of Lucky Pig Teapot” celebrating the Chinese New Year in Zhujiajiao, China.  Her work was also shown in “Firewalkers, An Exhibition of Fine Ceramic Art” at the Trahern Gallery in Clarksville, TN, and “Journeys, Not Destinations”, a solo show at Point B Gallery in Clarksville inspired by her travels across the country.  Her work has had numerous collectors including the Shanghai Museum, and can currently be seen at Seasons: The Museum Store in Clarksville, TN, and in her home studio.  She conducts regional workshops, such as at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC and in area public schools through the Artist in the Schools program and the Community School for the Arts at Austin Peay State University.